Progress has been limited among football leaders

College football - Diversity report

November 18, 2009|By Sentinel Staff Writer

Even though there are a record number of minority head coaches in Division I-A college football this season, schools and conferences remain an overwhelmingly white male world, according to a new study released Tuesday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at UCF.

The news hardly comes as a surprise to Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study and director of The Institute, because little has been done to change hiring practices or open the pool of candidates to more minorities.

"Unless we change how we do it by looking for new strategies and tactics, when we issue the same report in 2010 the numbers are going to remain stagnant," Lapchick said. "Whatever we're doing now, it's not working."

The Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Schools in the 2009-10 Academic Year examines the race and gender of conference commissioners, campus leaders, athletic directors, football coaches and student-athletes for all 120 Division I-A schools.

There are nine minority head coaches in Division I-A athletics: seven African-Americans, one Latino coach and one Asian, but only one in a BCS conference -- Miami coach Randy Shannon. The total number is up one from 2008, but three black BCS coaches were fired at the end of that season.

The numbers this year show a slight decrease for minorities as presidents (down 0.8 percent) and slight increase for minority head coaches (up 0.8 percent). The percentage of women serving as presidents increased 0.8 percent, remained the same for athletic directors, and increased by 1.6 percent for faculty athletic representatives. One African-American woman was hired as chancellor.

These figures reveal little progress in getting minorities hired. On the Division I-A level, 100 percent of the conference commissioners are white -- as are 93.3 percent of the presidents, 86.7 percent of athletics directors, 92.6 percent of the faculty athletics representatives, 92.5 percent of the head football coaches and 82.9 percent of the faculty.

"In an era where we've elected an African-American, we haven't had these breakthroughs in college athletics, particularly with head football coaches," Lapchick said. "Those of us in higher education think of ourselves as holders of democratic ideals. Our colleges and universities should look as diverse as America."